


Finding Our Way Back Home

by idunnowatimdoing



Category: Inception (2010), Merlin (TV), Sherlock (TV), Skyfall (2012) - Fandom, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: 00Q - Freeform, Johnlock - Freeform, Merthur - Freeform, Multi, Stony - Freeform, This is crack, do not judge me, mystrade, phlint - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-01-20
Updated: 2013-01-20
Packaged: 2017-11-26 04:25:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/646551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idunnowatimdoing/pseuds/idunnowatimdoing
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A story in which Quin (Q for short), and his two brothers, Arthur and Merlin, get adopted by one Mycroft Holmes, and how they grow up, grow apart, and come back together.</p><p>Basically Q gets kidnapped, and his family gets pissed.</p><p>(I suck at summaries, but I promise it's actually a lot more interesting than this)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

Hunith wrapped her arms around herself, sliding down the wall, a palm pressed against her mouth to hold in the sob. He was gone. Balinor, her love, her husband, her other half… he was gone, swept away by the call of war. He’d held her not but a few hours ago and whispered his words of goodbye. He promised to return, but they both knew he wouldn’t, that he’d more than likely die in this battle, this endless battle full of blood and death and endless carnage. She’d always known that he would leave one day, known she would wake and he would be gone, his half of the bed cold, mind-numbingly cold. At least he’d given her a warning, though she wasn’t sure that was any better than if he’d fled in the middle of the night. She shuddered, the tears falling against her will as she bit her hand, trying to hold them back. She couldn’t cry, she couldn’t weep.

A little knock on the door startled her, and as a little head peeked into the room, she hastily tried to press her palms into her eyes to make the tears stop. “Mommy,” a soft voice said, and then there was the sound of small feet padding over to her slowly. She felt her son, her Arthur, put a hand down on her shoulder. “Don’t cry, Mommy,” he pleaded, sounding as if he were going to cry himself. Hunith sniffed, her back straightening as she pulled herself together. She couldn’t lose herself now. She had to care for the children, for Arthur and Merlin… and her child to come. She had to be strong for them now. She was all they had left.

She wiped the remaining tears and opened her eyes, forcing a smile. Her Arthur looked down at her with sad, tear-filled eyes. “Hey,” she whispered, reaching an arm out and wrapping it around him, pulling him down into the safe cradle of her arms. “Hey, shhh, it’s okay now, Arthur love.”  

He collapsed in his mother’s arms, his own tiny ones coming up to wrap around her neck as he rested his head against her chest. “Mommy, why did Daddy leave?” he sobbed, tears running down his face.

Hunith’s arms tightened around her son just slightly. She sighed, running a hand through his hair, feeling him relax in her arms. “Your daddy loves you very much, Arthur,” she said, because she knew her precious boy was thinking he’d driven Balinor away. And for that, she would never forgive him, for making her child blame himself. “He loved you so much. But he had to go away.” She pulled away to look at his face, wiping the tears from his eyes. He hiccupped as he tried to control himself, rubbing harshly at his eyes in frustration for the tears he kept spilling. She pulled his hands away, kissing his forehead for a long moment until he calmed just enough to breath almost normally, only occasionally being interrupted by a gasp for air. Pulling back to look in his eyes, she brushed some hair away and tried for a smile. “Your daddy is a very, very brave man. And he had to leave so that he could go save people.”

“L-like a s-super h-hero,” Arthur stuttered, still trying to regain control. And it was so unfair that her poor baby boy had to go through this, had to feel this pain, had to hold back the tears and push his suffering aside.

“Yeah,” she smiled, because no matter what, her son would always be able to shine a light on the darkest of moments. All of her children would. “Just like a super hero.” And then Arthur pressed his cheek against her chest, closing his eyes, and she held him and rocked him gently, humming under her breathe until he’d calmed down. It was awhile before she moved them, leading a drowsy Arthur through the hallway to his bedroom, his little hand wrapped around her finger. Her free hand rested protectively over her stomach, the barely noticeable baby bump already straining her back. There was a small cry as they opened the door to the bedroom, and Arthur let go of her to run over to the crib and look inside in worry. Little baby Merlin looked up at them with wide eyes, the little tufts of black hair sticking out everywhere. He let out another cry, his tiny fists reaching up for someone to take him, and Arthur reached in, letting Merlin grab his finger. And, well, if the table across the room started floating just slightly, and Merlin’s bright blue eyes flashed gold, neither Arthur, nor Hunith, commented. Hunith reached inside the crib, pulling her son out and cradling him in her arms. He gurgled, letting out a tiny laugh, and Arthur pulled on her skirt until she bent down and let him wrap his hand around Merlin’s.

She looked between her two boys, the two lights of her life, and felt a slight shift in her stomach. Nothing major, just a little shift. And with her precious children here, she knew that she could make it. They would survive this, and they be as happy as they could be.  

 

\----

 

 

The pregnancy had been horrible, though not as bad as Merlin’s pregnancy had. She’d delivered her darling safely in the dark of the night. The infant had screamed once, only when the doctor gave it the pat that brought its first breath. It screamed, just once, and then it’d fallen silent, worrying Hunith in a way she’d never felt before. She’d reached out, her eyes wide in desperation. A child should not be so silent after they’d been born. It wasn’t healthy. What if there was something wrong? What if he was dying? Oh Lord, her child. The doctor placed her baby in her arms, and she’d looked down at him in terror of what she would see. Only, her eyes didn’t meet the blue face of a choking child, or the unnatural paleness of a dead baby. Instead, her eyes met bright, vivid blue, her darling staring up at her silently; something in his eyes made her believe there was an untapped knowledge behind them. She smiled, a half sob, half laugh spilling from her lips as she looked down at her healthy baby boy, and he looked back up at her.

“Quin,” she murmured, a finger tracing over his cheek, his nose, his brow. “His name is Quin.” Because something in his eyes told her that this child was special, that he was going to be something great. Though, she had seen the same look in her other two sons’ eyes as well. They were all going to be special, were going to change the world. She smiled dazzlingly, and held her last child until the doctor took him to be washed, and she closed her eyes to sleep. Sometime in the night she was aware that Arthur snuck into the room and curled up on the bed with her, his little hand grabbing hers and holding until she pulled him into her arms and they both drifted to sleep.


	2. Dandelion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a bit of cuteness. Sorry it's short. I'll probably write another chapter and have it up by tonight. I'm trying to write backstory to set up the dynamics between the characters. If you like all those action packed, on the edge of your seat stories, this isn't it right now. Because I have to get everything set up, and it's probably going to take awhile to get everything set up, because I have ideas where I want this to go, and it's going to take awhile for it to get to where Q is kidnapped. Sorry. Hope you enjoy anyways.

Laughter rang through the air, and Hunith’s hands paused over the dish she’d been washing so that she could look out the window, smiling at the sight of her lovely boys playing around on the grass. Arthur was nine now, Merlin six, and Quin five. Her boys all looked so very alike, all with shaggy black hair that seemed to hang into their eyes, all of them looking distinctly like little dandelion heads. Arthur’s doe brown eyes were crinkled as he laughed, his dimples showing. He grabbed Quin around the torso in a bear hug, holding him still as Merlin, blue eyes alight with mischief, bent to join the tick assault they were staging on little Quin, his own lighter blue eyes closed tight as giggles peeled from him, his body shaking as he tried uselessly to escape from his brothers’ attack. “S-s-stoop!” he stammered, his laughter making talking hard as he gasped for air. The tickling continued for a few more minutes until Merlin must have taken pity on the boy and his eyes flashed gold, Arthur letting out a little sound of shock as he quickly released Quin, his hands flying up to cover his ribs as he fell to the ground in a sudden bought of laughter.

“N-no fair M-Merlin!” he shouted, his words breaking as he laughed helplessly, rolling around on the ground and scrunching up into a tight ball, his body shaking with the force of his laughter. “N-no magic! T-that’s ch-cheating!”

Merlin giggled, grabbing Quin’s hand and breaking off into a run across the lawn, Arthur’s laughter dying off as soon as Merlin’s back was turned, the spell breaking. He pushed himself up, breaking off into a run after them, all three of them screeching and giggling and trying to evade one another. It was adorable and perfect, and Hunith felt warmth flood through her at the sight of her precious boys running around, having so much fun.

She wrapped an arm around herself, her smile turning sad as suddenly she was hit by the too familiar longing, the wave of hollowness and mind-numbing loneliness flooding over her. Her precious children… She put a hand against her mouth, stiffling the sob that threatened to break through. Her precious boys. She loved them so much, but moments like this, when she watched them so happy, she couldn’t help but be consumed by the deep sense of something being missing. She missed Balinor so much, her chest aching at the thought of him, at the image of him here now, running around outside with their precious children.

She could almost he him now, the deep baritone of his laugh filling the air as _he_ cast his little magic spells to reduce their children to puddles of laughter. She could see them breaking free of the spell and peeling themselves off the ground, splitting up as all three of them ran around, trying to escape as Balinor chased after them, his arms spread wide, a giant grin on his lips as he and the children laughed, racing around the lawn until he caught them each, one by one, and flung them over his shoulders, carrying them back inside as they laughed and thumped his back, unable to do anything. He would carry them into the kitchen, Arthur and Merlin dangling over his shoulders and he carried a squirming and giggling Quin by his ankles.

He’d laugh, looking at her mischievously as she smiled at him, leaning against the counter as she watched the man she loved carry their little bundles of light around. He’d ask her what exactly he should do with them, and she would tell him to do something positively dreadful, like to toss them on the couch and make them eat their radishes. They’d squeal, crying out in terror and begging hem to please not, anything but the radishes, and Balinor would laugh, and carry them off to the couch. They’d giggle and then dart away, and Balinor would watch, then simply come back to the kitchen and wrap his arms around her, pulling her into a kiss. She’d kiss him back tenderly, unable to believe just how amazing her life was, and they’d both laugh as they listened to the little cries of “eww” and “gross” from their children. And it would be perfect and everything she could have ever wanted. And it hurt so much more to know she’d never have that, that it had been taken by her by the man who was supposed to be here, by the man who’d fled because he would always put honor and duty first, would always join the fight because he believed it to be the only way he could protect them. Even though the only thing they ever needed from him was for him to be here, with them.

She stiffled another sob, squeezing her eyes closed, a few tears leaking out before she could stop them, and then she was wiping them away, pressing the heels of her hands into her eyes to stop any more from falling. Crying would do no good; tears wouldn’t bring Balinor home, and she’d long ago come to terms with his absence. If there were moments of weakness where she couldn’t help but wish he was here with all her heart, then that was her problem. She made herself calm down, taking a deep breathe, and looked back out the window, smiling when she saw her children all collapsed on the ground next to one another.

Arthur was on his back, his arm raised in the air as he traced something in the sky, his mouth moving rapidly as he explained something to a wide eyed Quin who watched his oldest brother’s movements like they were the most interesting thing ever, clinging to his words. Merlin lay at their heads, on his stomach, twirling a dandelion between his fingers, looking up occasionally and smiling at his brothers. He blew on the little dandelion, the seeds dispersing, and Arthur huffed and puffed as a few landed on his face, Merlin and Quin laughing at his face. Of course, this ended with another chase around the yard, and she smiled, watching her children another moment before turning back to the dish and finishing up. This was her life, and she wouldn’t trade it for anything.


	3. Chapter 3

The first time Quin touched a computer, he knew he’d found his calling in life. It was during a school field trip to the local library. He was in his sixth year of primary school, and that was when they started to move from paper and pencils to the old desktop computers the library had in the back room.

He’d wandered into the room and watched his fellow students cram into the room, all of them watching the strange boxes on the tables that were making whirring noises. It was confusing and alien. They lived in the tiny little town of Ealdor, which up until a few years ago didn’t even have a library, let alone computers. The year after Arthur’s sixth year of school they’d built the structure, and a few months after that, the computers had arrived. It had been a huge event in the town, because before then they’d never really had much modern technology around. After the computers, more electronics made their way into Ealdor, but the computers in the library were still foreign, intimidating concepts to the young children who had generally never seen something like this before.

Merlin was led to a computer on a table, sitting down in front of the strange box with a black front, and his teacher went over the fundamentals of the computer, pointing and telling them the names of the different parts of it: the keyboard, the mouse, the screen, the power button, etc.

It was dizzying, all this new information, and Quin soaked it up as much as he could, finding it all intriguing. And then his teacher had booted up her computer at the front, flipping open a little window and started typing at the keyboard. Quin watched as words spread across the screen in front, matching what his teacher was typing. And then she opened a new window, this one having a little icon of a blue e. She typed in something, and then suddenly the screen flashed and they were on something she called a ‘website.’ She typed in another thing, and the screen flashed, going and she clicked something. Next thing he knew, Quin was watching with wide eyes as a video played across the screen. This was the first time he’d ever seen something like this. His family was too poor to afford a television, and though he’d heard stories from his brothers about this magical box, he hadn’t believed them.

Now he couldn’t believe his eyes. The teacher closed the window, smiling and telling them all to try doing something interesting with their computers. She walked around, looking over kids shoulders as they played around, clicking things with their mouses. Quin turned to look at his computer, and clicked on something, a menu pulled up, and he read over some of the things and clicked on something. It was like how Merlin described using his magic, the feeling of pure joy and wonder that washed through him as he stared at the box of metal and watched it run through a few programs that, to anyone else, seemed trivial, but to Quin were the most amazing things he’d ever seen. He was instantly in love, and knew that this was going to be his sanctuary from life when he couldn’t stand things anymore and needed to get away.

And, well, it really did become that. It was only a couple of months before his brothers caught on, finally catching on that when he disappeared, Quin was here, staring at the screen and typing away at the keyboard, at first just poking them with his index fingers slowly. Then, as time passed, he started to type with all his fingers, and in two months since he discovered the computer, his hands flew over the keys, typing so fast that Arthur and Merlin didn’t think he was actually typing words, just nonsensical letter combinations. But sure enough, when they walked over and peered over his shoulder, he was typing. And as time passed, the things he did on the computer started getting more and more advanced, until finally he discovered articles on the internet about coding.

It was all downhill from there.

Quin learned hacking by teaching himself, reading through article after article about the different types of programs he could use. It was so strange, but he couldn’t help but feel thrilled at the knowledge that was at his disposal. Perhaps it should have been worrying how much time he spent here, but at this point, his family was just glad that he’d found something he so obviously enjoyed. Their mother remained oblivious to his growing abilities, figuring he was like all the other children and was simply taken up with computer games.

His hacking career started out small, just him trying to see what he could do. Before he knew it, he was into their school’s database, reading the files of all the mean kids and laughing over the stories of their mischief. He found it even more enjoyable when he knew that the only reason he could get at these was because he could do something no one else in their little village could do, that he was special, just like Merlin with his magic and Arthur with his architecture skills. He’d always felt like the lame duck of the three of them, not having any skill he could profess as his own, but now he did and he loved the feeling of power, of satisfaction with himself and his capabilities.

After a year, Quin had moved from simple hacking into his school’s computers and had moved on to something bigger. He’d learned about how to hack into databases for websites. He’d started out small, trying it out on something called Facebook, and then progressively made his way up the food chain. There was something strangely gratifying to find a puzzle he’d never seen before, to encounter a system with a stronger firewall than he’d ever worked with before. And it was… he couldn’t describe the feeling of pulling that defense apart and breaking in. He didn’t do anything when he got in, he just tried to crack in because he wanted to see if he could.

And, well, that hadn’t gone over too well when Arthur and Merlin had found out.

It hadn’t gone over very well at all. He could still remember the look on their faces as they towered over him, arms crossed, brow raised. He’d tried to explain to them, but he knew they just didn’t understand. All they could focus on was the danger, the risk. What would happen to Quin if he ever got caught?

Except Quin had never been caught before.

Or so he thought.

 

\---

 

Quin’s fingers flew over the keyboard as he tried to crack his way into the school’s database and erase the latest fight from Arthur’s permanent record. Well… not really tried, seeing as he’d done this so many times it wasn’t even difficult anymore. He pushed his glasses up absentmindedly when they slipped down his nose, the movement barely causing  a hitch in the skilled code rewrite he was doing. With that done, he turned back to his original project, flicking a glance up to make sure no one was coming.

Though he loathed working in the library where anyone could see him, he didn’t have much of a choice. It was hard enough on his mum, trying to raise three growing boys, all of which had hit puberty and were at the age that they were hungry all the time, he didn’t need to add the fee of a home computer to that. As it was, all three boy were already working after school at their neighbor’s farm, doing hard labor to help their mum pay the bills.

He knew that he should probably be looking for another job to work instead of using his free moments to come here and indulge his hobby, but he just couldn’t bring himself to give up these few moments of peace he had sitting in front of a computer, learning his way around firewalls, finding all the little tricks that could get him into restricted databases, watching the C++ and other coding run in front of his eyes. It was therapeutic, and he couldn’t bear to give these few moments up. He sighed, his shoulders relaxing as he typed away, his eyes flicking over the screen as he read over the binary, the zeros and ones a secret language that he understood.

He lost track of time, as he always did when he was here, and he felt a little tingle in the back of his neck as his moment’s warning before suddenly Merlin’s magic crept over, tipping his chair back. And then the back of the chair hit Arthur’s stomach, and he looked backwards at a very frustrated Arthur. He flashed him a sheepish smile, seeing an equally frustrated Merlin over Arthur’s shoulder, though he, as always, had a tolerant look in his eyes that their eldest brother didn’t. The middle son had the patience of a saint, and Quin felt kind of terrible to always put that exasperated yet tolerant look in his brother’s eyes. Made him feel like he was letting him down.

His smile lost a bit of its shine after that, and he looked back to Arthur, finding his frustration easier to deal with. He moved his shoulders up, almost shrugging in a ‘what can you do?’ gesture, and then realized it was the wrong thing by the tightening around Arthur’s eyes. He sighed, knowing that smoothing this one over was going to be really hard, especially since Arthur had been on the end of his rope with Quin and his little hobby for the past week. He’d specifically asked him to take a couple weeks off, just so that Arthur could readjust, but even though he’d promised he wouldn’t come here for a while, here they were. “Arthur-“ he started, the biting look Arthur gave him shutting him up instantly. He looked away, leaning the chair back forward until all four legs were on the ground again, and turned around, mouth open to say something to his brothers.

Except Arthur was already walking away, his shoulders set in hard lines, and Merlin hesitated a moment before coming to stand by Quin, his hand brushing through his hair comfortingly. He sighed, looking at his little brother with that tolerant look and Quin swallowed hard, feeling as if he’d been punched in the gut. “You shouldn’t have, Quin,” he frowned. “You promised.”

“Merlin-“ he tried, Merlin’s hand coming up and he stopped again, his throat clogging up, because he knew that this was bad. He’d broken his promise to Arthur, and he knew there was no getting around this again.

“You promised,” Merlin repeated, making Quin’s throat clog up even more with guilt. “He’s just trying to protect you, Quin. I know it doesn’t seem like that, but he is. What you’re doing is dangerous. What if someone caught you? What would we do? What would Mom feel, finding out you’ve been doing all this behind her back and we knew? If something happened to you-“ This time it was Merlin’s voice that died off, and both of them swallowed, Merlin over the sudden panic that flooded through him, Quin over the guilt of those thoughts.

Quin looked down, unable to meet Merlin’s eyes anymore. He fixed his eyes on the ground, staring at Merlin’s shoes, seeing just how beaten and worn the sneakers were, seeing holes in the fabric around his toes. When he finally got his mouth to work again, his voice was little over a whisper. “I didn’t mean to hurt anyone.”

Merlin sighed, his hand falling from Quin’s hair. “I know you didn’t, Quin,” he said, turning around and leaving the room. The door shut behind him, and Quin could feel his stomach drop, shame flooding him as he turned and shut down his windows, not even bothering to finish the codes he’d been writing. He was in no mood for such things right now.

If only he’d paid attention and noticed that someone was altering the code he’d been working on. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... This didn't take too long to get out. Wow. I might actually get up three chapters today. Maybe.   
> This chapter was strange. I liked the idea of Q never having seen tech before, and having this whole moment. So I'm sorry if you don't like the idea, but this is my story so I can do what I want.


End file.
